Remember the old saying, it’s what’s on the inside that counts? While it’s hard to single out any truly shocking interiors this year, it’s more challenging to pick a winning workstation.

Lexus fired a loud warning shot at posh rivals with the LC500. The swoopy, futuristic coupe is just as alluring inside as it is outside. The interior feels expensive, looks sexy, and is home to one of the best V8 soundtracks we’ve heard this year.

However, some crucial errors, like a confusing gearshift pattern and mouse trackpad, spoil its chances for the top spot.

A finalist further up the food chain is Bugatti’s Chiron. Its interior makes a Koenigsegg’s look as inviting as lunch with Kyle Sandilands. From the moment you see that arch which swoops down from its roof, or the circular brake pedal, you know this thing is special.

And it must be the first Volkswagen product with a steering wheel without buttons pinched from an A3. Downsides? Rear vision is blocked by an almighty 16-cylinder engine and there’s no infotainment screen, yet it costs A$4.3m.

We’re not hankering for wood panels or Breitling clocks; we’d trade them for a perfect driving position and pedal placement every time. But luxury is nice, and on that note, Porsche’s new Panamera deserves high praise, weaving slick design and the latest technology into an office still clearly focused on you.

The Panamera interior mutes the outside world like you’ve climbed into a bank vault. The steering wheel’s nothing new – we’ve met the 918-inspired item before in 911s – but everything else is. Porsche went from a million buttons on the centre console to almost none, banishing them for touchscreen slates.

They surround a gear stalk that looks stolen from an Apache gunship. Its also sensibly separates ‘park’ with a button. Even the cup holder lids resemble cross hairs. The infotainment screen’s bigger than your living room’s, but doesn’t make the cockpit mimic Minority Report like a Mercedes-AMG E63.

The tactile ‘click’ when you press the console buttons is slick, too, while the infotainment’s new control system is simple to learn, even for iPhone-phobes.

Get happy with options and punters up back can watch TV or conference call with the Bluetooth headphones. But the most fun is to be had in the driver’s seat, where the central, and largest, dial counts engine revolutions. And a 4.0-litre twin-turbo V8 means it’ll come round more often than the clock.

Clear forward vision, thanks to that sweeping dash, lets you better judge when to release the hounds and underneath the brake pedal’s wide enough for left-foot braking. There’s also a nice solid dead pedal for when you want to call on all 20 braking pistons.

Of course, this is all bolstered by traditional Porsche ergonomics, which all helps make the Panamera Turbo interior as the place you’d rather be in 2017.